I got a BMPCC 6K for Christmas. I haven't had much of a chance to use it yet, but I have a question and wonder if I am doing something wrong. When I turn the camera on and use either of the lenses I have (a Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens for Canon EF and/or Canon - EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM) the colors on the view finder and very, very dark and not super clear.

For reference I had my wife take a photo of me holding my Samsung phone video and then the Blackmagic, and the difference is easily seen. My phones viewfinder is super clear and the blackmagic camera looks really blah. Is there a setting that needs to be adjusted?

The first picture is the cinema camera and the second is my Samsung Galaxy S9.

Rob, you may not have the colour temperature and tint set correctly on the BMPCC6K. It’s a cinema camera remember. Your phone may be on autopilot. But you need to look at all settings including how you are recording and the codec you’re using.

Thanks for your reply. Do you know exactly where those would be under on the settings? I looked through the manual and messed around the settings but nothing I found adjusts the color to match how it looks.

I want to record to black magic raw files just to have the footage as a master. From there from what I understand you can then export it to 4k if needed or prores... is that correct?

Rob, if you touch the temperature in the upper right side of the screen, you’ll see the ability to change the temperature and tint or select CWB and define what temperature you want or will suggest that you identify if your scene is a sunny day or incandescent or florescent light and so on. Or you select AWB and then hold a neutral sheet in the centre area box. It could be an 18% grey card or black or white paper. Anything neutral will get you a decent result.

Rob, if you select a raw codec including the resolutions such as 6K, it can be fixed data rate such as 8:1 or variable data rate such as Q5. Then swipe to get to the next page for additional settings.

If you want to record ProRes 4K, you can do that from the Record menu. Be more careful your exposure is accurate for ProRes; raw exposure can be tweaked in post more than ProRes.

There’s at least a hundred things to think about, but better to just start shooting and bring it into Resolve vía the Media Page; anything you want in your Timeline must be added to the Media Pool first. Just start something trivial and you’ll learn what you need gradually. The first thing I shot, from my driveway, was deer wandering on the street just in front of me.

Gather some beginner tutorials or look in the Getting Started discussions here. BMD has good videos on their website under Training.

Robdoc wrote:My phones viewfinder is super clear and the blackmagic camera looks really blah. Is there a setting that needs to be adjusted?

Just hope it’s understood that even after you work out white balance and use a lookup table, if you choose to use a lookup table, your Galaxy S9 is still going to blow the camera’s display out of the water. The camera’s display is good for composing, focusing and setting exposure, but it’s not great at visibility in the sun or, in my view, playing high resolution content.

There’s a video on YouTube that goes through the Pocket 4K menu exhaustively. He hasn’t done a 6K tour. Don’t know how different the 6K menu is, but you may find his 4K tour useful: